COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — They will stand at the podium Sunday in baseball’s Magic Kingdom, their long Hall of Fame journeys finally complete. Some men zoom into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first try. Not Carlos Beltrán. Not Andruw Jones. Not Jeff Kent.Induction Day has finally arrived for all of those men. But to get there, they had to agonize through a combined 24 elections — four for Beltrán, nine for Jones, 11 for Kent. So as they gaze from that stage at the crowded hillside on Sunday afternoon, how will they not be thinking about all the years they wondered if this day would ever arrive?“This is just an unbelievable moment,” Kent said last winter, at the press conference where he donned his Hall of Fame jersey for the first time — and on this unforgettable Sunday, the power of this latest moment promises to be just as overwhelming.Beltrán and Jones also reminded us that center fielders have long been the most glamorous Hall of Famers of them all, from Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle to Willie Mays and Ken Griffey Jr. But never have two center fielders been elected by the baseball writers and experienced their Induction Day on the same day — until Sunday.So how fitting is it that these two men were born just one day apart in April 1977? Now they will share this day, and this honor, for a lifetime.Kent is the first second baseman to enter the Hall since the arrival of Craig Biggio in 2015. Second base has long been one of the least represented positions in the Hall. So someday, visitors to the Hall may stare at Kent’s prodigious offensive numbers and wonder why it took him so long to earn this plaque.Here’s a look at the path to the Hall of Fame for each player.Beltrán’s Hall of Fame credentialsCarlos Beltrán, the switch-hitting center fielder who could do it all. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images) He spent 20 seasons working his magic for seven different teams. Beltrán was a Met … and a Royal … and a Yankee … and a Cardinal. He also passed through Texas and San Francisco – and had two different stints as a Houston Astro.Among men who played their entire careers during the live-ball era (since 1920), only two of them are switch-hitting Hall of Fame center fielders. One is Mantle. The other: Carlos Beltrán.Mantle sailed into the Hall in his first year on the ballot. Beltrán might well have joined him — if there had been no such thing as Trash Can-gate. But by the time he showed up on the ballot in 2023, the baseball world knew way too much about Beltrán’s role in the 2017 Astros’ trash-can symphony.The Athletic first reported in 2019 on the Astros’ illegal sign-stealing escapades that year, which involved banging on trash-can lids to signal to hitters which pitches were coming. So it was fair to wonder if Beltrán — or any of his teammates — would be elected at all.Instead, Beltrán wound up paying a three-election penalty of sorts for his prominent part. But by his fourth orbit on this ballot, the voters — select members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America — decided that Beltrán had served his time.One big reason he made it to the podium is that he’d already had a Hall of Fame career — 19 years of consistent excellence — before he joined those 2017 Astros. So once the voters just focused on what Beltrán achieved over those first 19 seasons, he looked like the most obvious Hall of Famer on the 2026 ballot. Here’s why:He could do it all — With some players, we ask: What was he good at? With Beltrán, it was easier to ask: What wasn’t he good at? His Baseball Reference page shows us he made an impact every way a player could make one:Batting Runs above average: Plus-262